The Study to Assess Longer-term Opioid Medication Effectiveness (SALOME) will choose a Downtown Eastside location next month and begin taking applications from potential participants in February, according to a Tuesday press release from the Inner Change Foundation, which, along with the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, is funding the trial. With selection of participants supposed to last only three weeks, that means SALOME could be underway by March.

SALOME will enroll 322 hard-core heroin addicts—they must have been using at least five years and failed other treatments, including methadone maintenance—in a year-long, two-phase study. During the first phase, half will be given injectable heroin (diacetylmorphine) and half will be given injectable Dilaudid® (hydromorphone). In the second phase, half of the participants will be switched to oral versions of the drug they are using.

The comparison of heroin and Dilaudid® was inspired by unanticipated results from SALOME’s forerunner, NAOMI (the North American Opiate Medication Study), which began in Vancouver in 2005 and produced positive results in research reviews last year. In NAOMI, researchers found that participants could not differentiate between heroin and Dilaudid®. The comparison of success rate among injection and oral administration users was inspired by hopes of reducing rates of injection heroin use.

SALOME was also supposed to take place in Montreal, but Quebec provincial authorities effectively killed it there by refusing to fund it. SALOME researchers have announced that it will now proceed in Vancouver alone.

With an estimated 5,000 heroin addicts in the Downtown Eastside and a municipal government that has officially embraced the progressive four pillars approach–prevention, treatment, harm reduction, and law enforcement—to problematic drug use, Vancouver is most receptive to such ground-breaking research. It is also the home of Insite, North America’s only safe injection site.

The NAOMI and SALOME projects are the only heroin maintenance programs to take place in North America. Ongoing or pilot heroin maintenance programs are underway in Britain, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, and Switzerland.

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In the following 7 videos, Sam Sullivan, former Mayor of Vancouver talks about SALOME – Vancouver’s New Heroin Maintenance Trial and other things to Members of VANDU and Ann Livingston in Vancouver Downtown Eastside

Videos by April Smith of AHA MEDIA on a New Media camera – Kodak Zi6. AHA MEDIA is about exploring mobile media production through New Media cameras. For a better quality version of this video, please DM April Smith @AprilFilms on Twitter or Facebook.com/AprilFilms

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Below is a photo of Sam Sullivan – Former Mayor of Vancouver, Richard Cunningham of VANDU, Peter Davies of AHA MEDIA, Robert Vincent – President of VANDU, Hugh Lampkin – Vice President of VANDU

Will be helping to present at #BarCamp on @FearlessCity – Moble Media + @W2Woodwards – New Media Arts Centre in Vancouver #BCV09

Will be helping to do a presentation on Mobile Media Strategies at @FreshMediaMe at @W2Woodwards from 1:50pm to 2:40pm TODAY!

Just filmed a short segment of the the Sites of Empowerment tour in the Vancouver Downtown Eastside with Wendy Pedersen and CCAP volunteers. Nice to see Vancouver City Councillor George Chow with our group of 40 interested folks on life in our community! 🙂

Clustering in action

AHA Media is a struggling new company incubated in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside by a government-funded agency that turned to theories of a Harvard University professor more often associated with Silicon Valley and Hollywood than with revitalization of urban slums.

April Smith, one of the company’s founders, drifted into the Downtown Eastside after a serious car accident left her with severe memory loss and other injuries. With no money, she ended up living in temporary shelters and hotels dominated by predator pimps and drug addicts, she said recently in an interview.

Her life changed after she began cartooning to tell the stories of people she met at the hotel and on the street. A local community group inspired her to think about reporting activities in her neighbourhood without going through traditional media. She became part of an apprenticeship program developed by a cluster of local companies. After completing the program, she worked with others to open a new business in the area, AHA Media.

Prof. Michael Porter has written extensively about the advantages of clustering as an approach to economic development. Concentrating interconnected companies, specialized suppliers and associated educational institutions in the same geographic area fosters increased employment, productivity and innovation, he said. The clusters become a catalyst for innovation that feeds economic growth.

Building Opportunities with Business, a government-funded agency, dedicated to revival of the local economy, embraced clustering at the suggestion of an ex-board member who had studied at Harvard.

Ms. Smith was part of a training program developed by a cluster that included Bell Canada, the FireHall Arts Centre, a local digital filmmaking program that works with youth at risk called Intersections Media, a B.C. government employment program called BladeRunners and a non-profit group working in social media called W2: Community Media Arts.

The training program “gave me a big, big start,” she said. “It gave me a sense of direction.”

Ms. Smith is now on Twitter, Facebook, Youtube and Flickr. She describes herself as a mobile new-media videographer and social media content-producer. She shoots camera-phone videos and live-streams events onto the Internet.

Clustering pushes local businesses to think how they can work together, BOB’s chief executive officer, Shirley Chan, said. But, unlike Silicon Valley, the Downtown Eastside businesses do not have resources to carry out many of their ideas.

“Many employers here are marginal, they do not have a lot of money. That is why they are here. The rent is cheap,” she said. “ Without finding sources of funding, there is not a lot that can be created.”

AHA MEDIA was pleased to attend BOB’s Christmas Open House at Main and Pender in Vancouver. Their new location was beautifully decorated and very spacious… located right at Main and Pender in Vancouver

Based in Vancouver B.C., Building Opportunities with Business (BOB) is a non-profit organization that is championing an inclusive revitalization process for the inner-city that values existing businesses and residents. BOB is a connector, a resource and a facilitator working to: strengthen the inner-city’s community capacity; identify and build on untapped business opportunities; improve employment opportunities and retention; and increase investment in Vancouver’s inner-city.

Co-Working Opportunities are available at BOB.
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To further our mission we would like to make available to select partners, individuals, and businesses the main floor of 163 East Pender Street. We hope that this open shared work space can contribute to the revitalization of the inner-city by providing a space for creative professionals to flourish, for ideas to percolate, to cross pollinate, for businesses to grow, a place where stuff gets done.

What we’re offering is a work surface, be it a desk, a chair, a table, a couch, or the bay window, wherever you’re most comfortable.

Of course we’ll offer wi-fi and other niceties such as an electronic white board and a projector to facilitate discussion and creative thinking. There’s a fridge for your food, a microwave, filtered water cooler, and secure storage for your bike.

The price is a flat $200 per month and includes keyless access.

We’re looking for creative professionals, progressive thinkers, the socially responsible and ecologically conscious who want to be surrounded by others of like mind.

Folks who want more than a cubicle and a 9 to 5 and dream of bigger things and a better Vancouver to call home.

If this sounds like you, contact Andrew “Muskie” McKay 778-328-7672 or write coworking@bobics.org

In these photos and video, Hendrik Beune, Director of AHA MEDIA speaks about an office chair at his work that makes employees work close to the ground and almost on their knees

This was filmed by April Smith of AHA MEDIA on a mobile cameraphone. April is passionate and skilled in making new media films by exploring mobile media production through the camera lens of a cellphone. For a better quality version of this video, please DM April Smith DM April Smith at Twitter.com/AprilFilms or Facebook.com/AprilFilms

This was filmed by April Smith of AHA MEDIA on a mobile cameraphone. April is passionate and skilled in making new media films by exploring mobile media production through the camera lens of a cellphone. For a better quality version of this video, please DM April Smith DM April Smith at Twitter.com/AprilFilms or Facebook.com/AprilFilms